Communism/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim is standing in his bedroom. Moby walks across the room sideways, carrying a chest of drawers. The chest of drawers is obviously heavy, and Moby is moving it with difficulty. TIM: Hurry! Moby frowns and loudly puts down the chest of drawers in the middle of the room. MOBY: Beep. TIM: What? I can't lift that thing. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, I've been reading about communism. Can you explain it? From, Quincy. Moby places a small lamp atop the chest of drawers. TIM: Uh, you've probably heard about communism in terms of other countries' governments. Communism is an economic system where wealth is distributed evenly to everybody. An animation shows a pile of coins being divided up evenly and handed out to several smiling faces. TIM: It's sort of the opposite of capitalism, where everybody competes to make money. An animation shows the same smiling faces clustering around a pile of coins. TIM: In a pure communist society, there would be no private property, and everybody would be equal in wealth and social status. So a coal miner would make the same wage as, say, a banker. An image shows a coal miner and a banker standing side by side. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, that's the theory behind communism. The reality is that communist countries tend to be undemocratic, concentrating power in the hands of very few people, or even one dictator. So most communist societies have ended up benefitting the few at the expense of the majority. An image shows a long line of people waiting for bread. TIM: Communist states like Cuba and North Korea are examples of those tendencies. The nations of Cuba and North Korea are highlighted on a world map. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, we can try to understand communism by going back to its beginnings. Communism was the creation of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, two German philosophers. An image shows Marx and Engels. TIM: In the late nineteenth century, they published a short political pamphlet called The Communist Manifesto. An image shows the cover of their original pamphlet. TIM: Marx and Engels thought that capitalism had created a society of unequal classes, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The proletariat is the working class, and it makes up the majority of society. Images show idealized workers. They are depicted as strong, noble, and hardworking. TIM: The bourgeoisie, or bourgeois, are the wealthier class. They're the owners of capital, stuff like factories, buildings, property, and just plain money. Images show caricatures of wealthy people, including a piggish, well-dressed man sitting in a pile of gold. MOBY: Beep. TIM: OK. Just stay with me. According to Marx and Engels, capitalism exploits the proletariat, making people work long hours at meaningless jobs for not enough money. An animation shows a man doing a repetitive task on an assembly line. TIM: Meanwhile, the bourgeoisie gets all the rewards of their hard work. A well-dressed man passes behind the assembly-line worker, pushing a wheelbarrow filled with money. TIM: The manifesto predicted that around the world, the proletariat would revolt against the bourgeoisie. They would take over the factories and the governments, and eventually set up a new society where everyone's work would be valued equally. An image depicts shouting, angry workers taking down the capitalist system. There are flames, and clenched fists raised as symbols of solidarity. MOBY: Beep. Moby raises his own fist in the air. TIM: Yeah, that's what the workers back then thought, too. By the early twentieth century, communism had become very popular. Some countries were being replaced with communist ones, first in Russia, then China. A split-screen shows images representing communist takeovers in those two countries. TIM: But in both of these countries, the Communist leaders quickly established totalitarian governments, putting most of the power in the hand of a single dictator. An image of Josef Stalin appears over the Russian takeover, and an image of Mao Zedong appears over the Chinese takeover. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, it's not that Communists are bad people. But communist societies have a centralized economy, meaning just about everything's controlled by the government. An image shows a government building. More images appear representing government control of healthcare, money, factories, farms, education, and the military. TIM: What that does is it puts a ton of power into very few people's hands. Unfortunately, history has shown that once people get power, they like to keep it. An image shows a dictator drinking tea in front of a communist Russian flag. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Oh, yeah. That's the other thing. Most communist countries haven't had very successful economies. The Soviet Union, which included communist Russia and several nearby countries, dissolved in the early 1990s. An image shows the fallen Berlin Wall. TIM: And China has begun to switch back to a market economy. Capitalism! An image shows Chinese workers manning a phone bank. TIM: Cuba and North Korea, which have remained communist for many decades now, both rely on donations from other countries to survive. An image shows a ship labeled “Humanitarian Aid” sailing into a Cuban harbor. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, there are lots of reasons why their economies are struggling. Some say communism has a built-in problem. No matter how hard you work, you still get the same pay. So there's a lot less of a reason for people to put in their best effort. An image shows the assembly line worker from earlier. The worker is simply watching the conveyor belt move and not doing any work. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, it would be wrong to say that communism has been proven a complete mistake. Lots of governments, like those in Europe, have different degrees of socialism, a sort of cross between capitalism and communism. In these countries, people have private property, but the government provides for basic needs, like housing and health care. An image shows a doctor visiting a man in a hospital bed. TIM: Hey, um. Can you finish moving this dresser now? MOBY: Beep. TIM: Uh, how about you do it for the greater glory of my room? MOBY: Beep. TIM: OK, and a dollar. Tim hands Moby a dollar bill. MOBY: Beep. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts